Scientist: Any theory that is to be taken seriously must affect our perception of the world. Of course, this is not, ...

Ravi on August 9, 2019

@ethan.thilavanh@gmail.com,

Great question. This is an argument structure question, as it's asking
you to choose the answer choice that describes the point of the
scientist's mentioning astrology in the argument. You're looking for
the answer that tells us why she did this.

For more information on argument structure questions, I highly
recommend reviewing our video lesson on the topic, as it will help you
to further familiarize yourself with this question type.

For this question, the scientist is saying that if a theory is to be
taken seriously, it is necessary that it actually affects how we view
the world, but this is not sufficient for a theory to be taken
seriously. The scientist then cites astrology as an example.

Astrology is brought up as an example to provide support for the
scientist's claim by showing a theory that meets her necessary
condition for affecting how we see the world but failing to satisfy
the sufficient condition, as it should not be taken seriously.

We're looking for an answer choice that touches upon this.

(C) says, "an example of a theory that should not be taken seriously
despite its affecting our perception of the world"

(C) is great. Astrology meets the necessary condition in the
scientist's argument, but it still should not be taken seriously.
Thus, (C) is the correct answer choice.

Does this make sense? Let us know if you have any other questions!

grimadeau on September 22, 2020

should I be thinking sufficient and necessary conditions on this? I'm still confused on this answer and question

Abigail-Okereke on December 14, 2021

can you please diagram this. having a bit of trouble diagramming the second question

Abigail-Okereke on December 14, 2021

statement*

Jay-Etter on January 26, 2022

Hi @Abigail-Okereke,
There's only really one thing to diagram where, which would be the first sentence:
if theory taken seriously -> affect perception of the world.

The second sentence is the conclusion: that affecting perception of the world is not sufficient to know that a theory should be taken seriously.

The astrology sentence is our third sentence, which is implying that astrology affects our perception of the world yet it should not be taken seriously. Hope this helps, feel free to follow up.

skraps17 on July 6, 2022

I believe the explanation contains a typo. When explaining an example of when something is not sufficient, it essentially repeats the same reason for an example of a counter example.
I believe the explanation contains a typo. When explaining an example of when something is not sufficient, it essentially repeats the same reason for a counter example. See below for the error.

"A counterexample to a conditional statement will have the sufficient condition but not the necessary.
An example of a statement that something isn't sufficient will have the sufficient but not the necessary (which makes sense, since it's essentially a counterexample to a rule stating that the thing is sufficient)"